Single Ladies

by Blake Karrington

  * * *

  Tammy got to work about twenty minutes late today. Ms. D had a dialysis appointment and got back home late. Tammy thought that she was going to get an earful from her boss because she didn’t call to let him know that she was going to be late, but when she passed by him on her way to customer service, he just smiled and kept it moving.

  “I see you’re back from your OBGYN appointment,” Darious said, coming out from the back.

  “What?” Tammy asked, confused.

  “I told Tim you called in and said that you was going to be a little late ’cause you was at a doctor’s appointment,” he said, walking over and taking a seat next to her.

  “Thanks for covering for me. I know he was going to be tripping as soon as I walked through the door,” Tammy said.

  “Well, you just better hope your next coworker is as nice as I am.” Darious chuckled. “You know I’m outta here soon.”

  “What! I thought you didn’t graduate until next month,” Tammy said, shocked that he was leaving.

  “Yeah, I do graduate next month but I already got a job. I’ll be working at the hospital in the pharmacy department,” he told Tammy.

  “Wow, that’s a good look for you. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks. You know I’m going to miss you, right?” Darious said in a sincere manner.

  Tammy had to stop and look over at him to see if his facial expression matched the way he sounded and looked serious when he said it. “Boy, you better stop playin’. You ain’t gon’ miss nobody,” Tammy said, waving him off before turning back to the computer screen.

  “I’m dead serious, Tammy,” he shot back. “Can I be honest with you about something without you taking offense?”

  She didn’t know whether to answer that, but she really didn’t have time to because Darious just kept going.

  “Yo, I think you’re beautiful, Tammy. I been wanting to get with you from the moment you started working here. Truth is, I be kicking myself in the ass if I didn’t tell you this before I left. I like you a lot, Tammy.”

  Tammy was blown back by his confession. She always thought that he used to flirt with her, but never did she know that he liked her to this magnitude. It was flattering in a sense, enough to have her blushing like a teenage girl with her first cousin.

  “I don’t know if I’ll ever get this chance again so I was wondering if I could call you sometime?” Darious asked.

  Tammy’s defenses went straight up. It was the same block she put up on all the other men who tried to hit on her. It was something that came automatically because of her feelings for Chris. “I can’t dooo that,” she said with the sorry face.

  “Tammy, I just wanna be ya friend. I wanna be the person you can call on when you need to talk,” he said, turning his chair around to face her. Darious wasn’t giving up that easy. He was trying his best to break down that wall Tammy had put up and, from what he had said, it looked like it was starting to work.

  Tammy sat there in silence thinking about it. The thing was, she couldn’t deny the fact that she could use a friend right now in her life. Times were hard and just to have someone to talk to about life’s struggles was exactly what she needed. The fifteen-minute phone calls with Chris weren’t enough, nor could he call all the time.

  There’s no harm in just talking, she thought, looking over at Darious. “I guess you can call me,” Tammy said, writing her number down on a sticky pad and passing it to him.

  Darious whipped out his phone immediately and put the number into his phone book. This wasn’t just a big step for Tammy; it was also one for Darious. He waited patiently for months to get to this point. Now that he was here, there was only one more thing for him to do, and that was to keep pushing forward.

  * * *

  “Good afternoon, Mr. Windsor,” the bank manager, Larry, greeted Ralphy when he entered the office.

  Ralphy greeted him back then took a seat in the chair in front of his desk. He looked around the office at all the plaques hanging up and pictures of Larry standing next to a couple of celebrities, such as Usher, Bow Wow, and Kelly Rowland.

  Damn, he sure know a lot of black artists. “I had opened up an account here a couple of months ago and I just wanted to transfer some money into it from a joint account I have with my wife, also at this bank,” Ralphy explained.

  “That shouldn’t be a problem; just let me see your ID,” Larry said, adjusting his computer screen.

  Ralphy gave him his ID then watched as Larry began pulling up his file. Now that he was actually sitting in the bank, Ralphy starting to question whether he should go this far. Saying it and doing it were two totally different things. He wasn’t even sure if Lisa had slept with Dre, nor did he even attempt to rectify the situation. He didn’t even give Lisa a chance to fix what she had done. After all, she was his wife and most of the time when married couples have serious issues in their relationships, and they love each other deeply, they try to work things out, either with a marriage counselor or by themselves. Ralphy didn’t attempt to do either one and it was starting to weigh on his conscience.

  “Okay, Mr. Windsor, here’s a look at what’s in the joint account with your wife, and here’s what you have in your separate account,” Larry said, passing Ralphy the paper from the printing station.

  Ralphy held up both papers in each hand, scanning over them carefully. The numbers on the paper with his and Lisa’s joint account caught his attention immediately. He put his separate account paper down and focused in on the other.

  “Is this what’s left in this account?” Ralphy asked, pointing to the bottom of the page.

  “Yup, you have $8,422 in this account,” Larry confirmed. “Is something wrong?”

  Damn right something was wrong. There should have been at least $13,000 in their account. Ralphy wasn’t spending any money, so if it was missing it was because of Lisa. Ralphy normally kept tabs on the account transactions, mainly for budgeting purposes; but, as of late, he had been slacking in keeping up with it, but it was obvious Lisa wasn’t.

  “Is it possible I can see the last transactions within the last couple of months?” Ralphy asked with a suspicious look on his face.

  “Yeah, sure. I can do that,” Larry said, tapping away at the keys. “Here you go.”

  He passed Ralphy the two pieces of paper as soon as they came out of the printer. Larry was well experienced in the field of banking and knew that Ralphy may have had some marital problems. It was pretty much confirmed by the way Ralphy looked strongly at the two pieces of paper.

  “Look, Mr. Windsor. I know this isn’t any of my business but you seem like a nice guy,” Larry said, sympathizing with Ralphy. “I know it’s not professional for me to do this but we men gotta stick together,” he said, looking back on the computer. “I don’t know if you know this, but your wife also has an open separate account at this bank.”

  “Oh, is that right?” Ralphy said, raising one eyebrow.

  He had no idea Lisa had another account open and, from what Larry was telling him, she had it open for about a year now. Larry even told him how much she had in the account, which was double what they had in their joint account.

  Ralphy was hot as hell. The extra money she had in her separate account was one thing but the list of transactions made in the past two months was a whole other situation in itself. The credit card transactions showed purchases from Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Footlocker, and several other clothing stores, none of which Ralphy was at in the past six months. A million and one thoughts ran through his head at once, so much so he didn’t even hear Larry talking to him.

  “How much would you like to put into your account, Mr. Windsor?” Larry asked again, this time snapping his fingers to bring him out of his daze.

  Words couldn’t explain how Ralphy felt at that moment. All he wanted to do was leave; but, before he did, he answered Larry’s question.

  “All of it,” he said, grabbed his ID, and walked out of the office.

  Chapter
13

  Tammy got off the bus and walked the rest of the way to Chris’s mom’s house. With Sinniyyah in the stroller and Anthony walking up front, Tammy pulled out her phone to check her text messages. Darious had sent her a text, basically checking up on her to make sure she was all right. She smiled at the text then hit him back to let him know that she was good.

  “Anthony, slow down!” she yelled out to him.

  “But Grandma house right there.” He pointed, then began running toward the house once Tammy got closer.

  By the time she got to Ms. Elaine’s house, Anthony was on the porch knocking on the door. It was a pop-up visit so Ms. Elaine didn’t even know they were coming. Hell, Tammy didn’t even know if she was home, but Ms. Elaine was there standing behind the door with her head in her hands.

  “Grandma!” Anthony yelled out again as he continued to bang on the door.

  Ms. Elaine couldn’t ignore Anthony any longer, even if she wanted to. She just wanted to avoid the drama that was about to unfold. She swung the door open with a big smile on her face, reached down, and gave Anthony a big hug along with a few grandmom kisses.

  “Hi, Ms. Elaine,” Tammy greeted her, carrying the stroller up the steps. “What, were you asleep?” she asked, pulling Sinniyyah out of the stroller and grabbing the diaper bag.

  “No, I wasn’t ’sleep. But I wish I was,” she answered, mumbling the last part to herself.

  When Tammy got into the house she headed back toward the kitchen to make up a few bottles. When she got there, a young white female was sitting at the kitchen table standing a baby up on her lap. Tammy slowly walked by the girl and her baby, speaking to her before opening up the refrigerator.

  Tammy couldn’t see it at first because of the angle the girl was sitting at when she entered the kitchen, but on the side of the white girl’s neck, big as day, was the name CHRIS. Not that she had to, but Tammy looked a little closer at the fancy cursive writing.

  “Excuse me, but what’s ya name?” Tammy asked, closing the refrigerator door and walking over to the female.

  “Oh, my name is Amy. I’m Chris’s baby mother,” she said, tilting her head to the side so that Tammy could see Chris’s name on her neck, not that she had to.

  Tammy looked down at the little girl and there was no denying the fact that Chris fathered that child. Her hair was long, thick, and curly just like Sinniyyah’s, and she had his golden eye color along with his flat nose. The little girl and Sinniyyah looked almost like twins.

  “Ms. Elaine!” Tammy yelled out.

  She was so focused on Amy and the little girl, she didn’t even notice Ms. Elaine standing at the entrance of the kitchen. “Now that you two finally met, I think it’s best we sit down and talk,” Ms. Elaine suggested.

  “Talk about what, Ms. Elaine?” Tammy shot back with an attitude. “You knew about this and didn’t tell me.”

  “It wasn’t my place to tell you. It was Chris’s and he promised me that he would, so I left it alone,” Ms. Elaine explained. “I’m sorry you found out like this.”

  “Do she know?” Tammy asked, cutting her eyes over at Amy. “Do she know that me and Chris are . . . Let me rephrase that. Do she know me and Chris was together?” Tammy asked.

  Ms. Elaine just put her head down. Amy knew as much about Tammy as Tammy knew about her. In both of their eyes, they both were Chris’s girl. Tammy obviously had more time being with Chris than Amy did, and it was shown by the way Tammy took over the floor, and how Ms. Elaine was more sympathetic toward her. Amy, on the other hand, was so green to what was going on she didn’t seem to care at all.

  “You know what, you can keep his ass,” Tammy told Amy, then stormed out of the kitchen.

  Just as fast as she unpacked Sinniyyah’s things, she packed them back up. Ms. Elaine was trying to talk to her but Tammy wasn’t trying to hear shit right now. She left without saying another word, leaving Amy and Ms. Elaine sitting and looking stupidly at each other.

  * * *

  Ralphy sat at the kitchen table listening to Luther Vandross sing “A House Is Not a Home” on the radio. He had been drinking all evening, sitting there, waiting for Lisa to come walking through the door, but she never did, even hours after he knew she had gotten off of work. The only thing he could think was that she was with Dre, probably getting her back blown out. The more he thought about it, the more he drank and the more he drank.

  Right while Ralphy was taking another swig from the bottle of Jack Daniels, Lisa came walking through the door. At this point, Ralphy was so drunk he couldn’t even talk, nor could he find the strength to reach in his back pocket and pull out the paperwork he had gotten from the bank. He was torn up.

  “Baby, what’s going on?” Lisa asked, putting her bag down and walking into the kitchen. “What’s the matter?” she asked with a concerned look on her face as she pulled out a chair and sat next to him.

  Everything he wanted to say was in his brain, but the words just wouldn’t come out. He sat there with a look on his face like he was taking a crap, looking her right in the eyes. He couldn’t talk, but his tears were working just fine ’cause the more he thought about it, the more he would cry.

  “Baby, please talk to me,” Lisa pled, now wiping the tears falling from her eyes. She knew that she had hurt Ralphy and to see him sitting there drunk, and crying, was heartrending. She’d never seen him cry before, ever.

  For a moment, it looked like Ralphy was going to say something, but he didn’t. All he managed to do was crack a smile through the stream of tears falling down his face. He also found enough strength to get up from the table, knocking the bottle of whiskey over in the process. He stumbled toward the steps in an attempt to go upstairs and when Lisa tried to help him, he turned around and raised his fist. He only wished that he had enough power to punch her square in the jaw, but he didn’t. He barely had enough strength to make it up the steps; but after two or three stumbles, a pause here, and a pause there, he finally make it to the bedroom. That journey took everything he had left in him, ’cause once he hit the bed it was lights out.

  * * *

  In the federal prison system, e-mailing is a feature everybody uses in order to communicate, aside from the phone calls and what many people now call snail mail, via the postal service. Any time Tammy needed Chris to call home she would e-mail him then get the phone call within an hour or so. She e-mailed Chris as soon as she left his mom’s house so by the time she had gotten home Chris was calling. Tammy heard her phone ring the moment she stepped through the door. She hurried up and dug into her bag and pulled out the phone, leaving Sinniyyah still sitting in her stroller.

  “You have a prepaid call. You will not be charged for this call,” the automated system announced.

  Tammy pushed 5 to accept the call, taking a seat on the couch with Sinniyyah in front of her.

  “Wassup, babe,” Chris spoke, unaware of what was going on at home.

  “I just left ya mom house like an hour ago and guess who was there? Ya white baby mom and ya daughter,” Tammy said as she unstrapped Sinniyyah.

  It got real quiet on the phone. Chris was stuck. He didn’t know what to say. It was pointless for him to even try to lie because he knew Tammy wasn’t trying to hear any of it.

  “So you don’t have anything to say?” Tammy asked, breaking the dead silence on the phone.

  “I mean, what you want me to say?” Chris answered, feeling the agony of defeat around the corner.

  “I was faithful to you this whole time and this is what I get in return. I stood by you when you didn’t have a damn dime in ya pocket. None of these bitches was around then. And you gon’ sit here and have a fuckin’ baby on me,” Tammy yelled.

  “Yo, we can’t do this over the phone. We’ll talk about it on the visit. I’ll explain everything then,” Chris said.

  He didn’t realize that it was a little too late to try to explain. Instead of being real and honest from the beginning, he lied and eventually got caught. That was the straw th
at broke the camel’s back.

  “Chris, I know I said this before and you might even think that I’m lying, but it’s over. I don’t wanna be with you anymore. Please don’t call my phone. Please don’t write me letters, and please don’t expect any visits from me. I’ll drop the kids off at ya mom house so she can bring them up there from now on. Take care of yourself. Bye,” she said then hung up the phone.

  She didn’t even give him a chance to respond, not that he had a response anyway. Right then and there Chris knew for sure that he had lost his girl: the very thing he never wanted to happen.

  Chapter 14

  Lamar got out of the shower, wrapped a towel around his waist, and headed for his bedroom. It was a beautiful day today. The sun was shining bright and it wasn’t hot and humid like it’d been all week, so Lamar was going to take full advantage of this time and do a little shopping downtown.

  He walked over to his window and became irritated instantly once he saw Fox’s truck sitting outside. Neither Fox nor Falisha was in the truck, which meant that he was inside of her house.

  “I see you, playa,” he mumbled to himself, backing away from the window then heading out of the room to go downstairs.

  As he walked down the hallway he stopped at the top of the steps and stood still. He thought his ears were deceiving him ’cause it sounded like a female was moaning somewhere in the house. It was odd because he thought Kim had gone to work; but, then again, when he woke up this morning the only place he had been to in the house was the shower.

  “Ooooh yesss!” the moans continued.

  Lamar quietly walked over to Kim’s bedroom door, placing his ear up against it to see if the noise was coming from there. It wasn’t though, which caused him to look around. He walked back to the top of the steps where the moaning got louder, indicating that it was coming from downstairs. Every step he took after that revealed more of where the moaning was coming from.

  He cleared one step, and could see the couch, then another, by which he could see a pair of legs moving around. By the time he got to the bottom of the steps he could see everything. Kim was laying on the couch asshole naked playing with herself. She was rubbing her toy in and around her pussy with one hand and squeezing and pinching her nipples with the other hand. Her eyes were closed the whole time from the pleasure she was feeling, so she didn’t even notice Lamar standing in the room.